The Negotiating Committee is providing this update to the AMFA Membership at Alaska Airlines. This is the only official authorized source of negotiating communications by the Committee.

April 12–13, 2016, AMFA and Alaska Airlines met to continue negotiations at the Alki Bakery "Baker Room" in Kent, WA. We started the first day discussing how the contract negotiations will still move forward during the Virgin America merger. Then we moved on to talking about Article 8, paragraph K, Special Projects. Between negotiations sessions the Company had some supervisors try to call a mock special project using the language we had agreed to. With that feedback, the committees reviewed the language and changed portions of paragraph K to make it clearer and easier to select members for the special project and to match the intent of the Article. We then moved on to talk about the Company’s proposal of a new AMFA position for regional vendor oversight. The talk revolved around what the Company wants the position to do, things like overseeing the station and the vendors. We told the Company that if this was approved there would be no blended work. The Company said that they will review what they want this new position to do and get back to us. We moved on to the Company proposal for an Apprentice Technician Program. After a long discussion the Company explained that the problem they were trying to address was the trial period of 480 hours for people initially upgrading to technician is not long enough. We ended the day crafting some new language for Article 10, paragraph D.

On April 13, 2016, we spent the morning finishing the language in Article 10, paragraph D. We crafted language to make the trial period of an employee who does not hold seniority in a Technician classification, but who is awarded a Technician position, that permits them to hold the job for a minimum of 120 hours worked and no more than 1040 hours worked on a trial basis in order to demonstrate their ability to satisfactorily perform the job. The Company then withdrew its proposal on an Apprentice Technician Program. Next we moved on to Lead selection and deselection. We crafted language to cover Lead selection, but informed the Company that this language would be tied to economics. The Company then withdrew its proposal for a Lead deselection process.

Our Committee would like to thank the observers that took the time to attend. Remember to check your Local’s website for the most up-to-date information on times and locations of negotiations: www.amfa14.org and www.amfa32.com. If you have any questions, please contact your Airline Representative or attend your next monthly membership meeting for a question and answer period.

If you plan to attend a future negotiation session, please contact your Airline Representative to RSVP, by RSVPing you are guaranteed a seat if the room is full.